


Emptiness and

by Dwiddle



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gladio is 33, Ignis is 32, Multi, Noctis and Prompto are both 18, The world ends with you au, character tags to be added as they appear, dont need to know twewy to read this, twewy au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 04:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12623068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dwiddle/pseuds/Dwiddle
Summary: Waking up in the middle of an unknown street, with his last memory of him dying, Noctis struggles to understand what his current circumstances are.Prompto wakes up not at the bottom of his stairs in a bloody heap, but on another unknown street, wondering what was going on.Both have a timer on their hands and a message on their phones.Unknown Number: Reach Platea StreetUnknown Number: You have 60 minutesUnknown Number: Fail, and face erasureNow the two must work together and play a game of life or death if they want to return home. But nothing ever comes easy.The World Ends With You AU that sprung into my head for would not leave





	Emptiness and

_“Not now Noct, I’m busy.”_

_“That’s nice, but what about your house? I bet you have all the latest tech!”_

_“Noctis, be quiet. We’re in the middle of something.”_

_“Not today Noctis, maybe some other time.”_

 

_Why even talk to anyone when no one actually cares?_

_Nothing I say matters._

 

DAY 1

6 DAYS REMAIN

 

When he came to, nothing felt right. The first thing he noticed was that he was laying face first on the ground. He was pretty sure he went to sleep in his bed at home and not in the middle of a noisy street. That was immediately followed by the thought of ‘holy shit I’m laying down in the middle of the street.’

Noctis pushed himself up onto his knees. It was a slow affair, his arms sluggish and refusing to cooperate with his mind. He should probably get up faster so, you know, he didn’t get hit by a car that would either seriously hurt or kill him.

Noctis winced, shutting his eyes tight and holding his head in his hands as a strong headache suddenly appeared.

_“Give me your money.”_

_“I already told you! I don’t have anything on me!”_

_“Liar!”_

It took a few seconds for his headache to subside. When the pain in his head lessened, his eyes widened, his memory catching up to him.

‘I was shot,’ he thought, his breath catching in his throat. His hands flew down to his chest, feeling all over, trying to find the wound that he was sure had happened. It had hit him right there, in the chest, on the left side.

Where his heart was.

‘I should be dead.’ He was surprised at himself for not hyperventilating at the revelation. He probably should be panicking. All he felt was confusion.

If he got shot, and he was pretty sure it hit his heart, how was he still alive? And he was shot in some short cut back alley on his way home from school, and that was… not there. How did he get here, in the middle of the street? The middle of a street that he was still kneeling in that he should probably get out of.

‘I’m lucky I haven’t been hit already,’ Noctis thought to himself. He looked around, finally taking in his surroundings. He was indeed in the middle of a four way intersection, one he did not recognize. ‘Probably farther out from center city.’ There were run down buildings around him, paint chipping off the walls and signs streaked with dirt. Around him, people walked along the sidewalks and across the streets. No one spared him a glance, like teenage boys laying sprawled out in the street was a common occurrence.

With shaky legs, Noctis stood up and brushed off his pants, the same black slacks that he wore the night he was shot. He felt more confusion when he noticed that while his pants and shoes were the same, his shirt wasn’t. Last night he wore a white button up, part of his school uniform, and now it was a plain white shirt. Did that happen last night? ‘How long have I been here?’

Noctis started walking to the sidewalk. Even if no cars had hit him, he didn’t want to test his luck. People, strangers, walked up and down the sidewalk, going to wherever they needed to be, not taking notice of anyone around them unless inconvenience. A glare there, a questioning look there. Typical city.

Standing by a telephone pole was a younger woman, early twenties, with bright purple hair. She just stood there, staring at her phone, out of the way of the waves of people.

‘Maybe she can help me,’ Noctis thought. She wouldn’t be able to explain everything that’s been happening to him, but she could at least tell him where he was. That was something. He picked up the pace, lightly jogging to her. When he got close enough, he stopped. He was only about two feet away, but she continued to mess with her phone, not even acknowledging him.

He opened his mouth, ready to ask the woman where he was, but no sounds came out. Eyes widening, he tried to talk again, receiving the same outcome. His hands flew to his mouth and throat.

‘What the hell,’ he thought, rubbing his throat. He continued to try and speak with no prevail. No words, no sounds, not even a squeak. Just utter silence. The woman in front of him waved at a man ahead of them on the sidewalk and he walked over, striking up a conversation with her. Neither of them paid him any mind. All he could do was stare at the two, dumbfounded. The other people on the sidewalk were walking around them, wide enough that none of them bumped into him, yet no one acknowledged that he was standing there by this woman and her friend with blatant confusion on his face, probably looking like an ass.

‘Thankfully no one can see me,’ he bitterly thought. He started to walk away, his mind running a mile a minute. How could any of this be possible? Was he dead? He didn’t feel dead. His body was warm, and he could feel his heartbeat in his chest. He was breathing. He was thinking. He could even feel himself getting hungry. But if he wasn’t dead, then how was no one seeing him? Why couldn’t he speak? As he walked, people parted for him. No one still seemed to notice him. It was like it was just instinct for them to walk around him.

‘Just what is going on,’ Noctis thought, sighing and shoving his hands into his pocket. When his hands brushed against something in each pocket, his eyebrow rose. His right hand felt something too small to be his cellphone or his wallet, and he was sure the mugger took everything of his while he was laying on the ground bleeding out. He wrapped his hands around whatever was in there and pulled it out. A small black pin rested in his hand, in the center of it a stylized skull.

‘Guess this looks kind of neat,’ Noctis thought. His other hand came up to show a black flip phone that was not his. What kind of mugger leaves a dingy phone behind with his victim? Before he could put it back in his pocket, it beeped, the outside screen lighting up, reading ‘one new message’ in bright text.

‘Not my phone, but…’ Noctis contemplating what to do. It wasn’t his phone, so the message wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, be for him. On the other hand, it was in his pocket for a reason. He flipped open the phone, opening the message.

Unknown Number: Reach Platea Street

Unknown Number: You have 60 minutes

Unknown Number: Fail, and face erasure

A sharp pain ran up Noctis’s right arm. He winced, holding it close to his chest, his fist clenched around the pin. The message, even if he didn’t understand it, unnerved him. The first two lines of the message made sense, even if he was confused as to why it was sent to this phone. What concerned him was that last line.

‘The hell does face erasure mean?’ It was creepy, and Noctis did not know what to make of it. Should he listen to the message? It could be from the mugger, some kind of weird game the man wanted Noctis to play to get his belongings back. But that didn’t make any sense.

‘None of this makes any sense,’ he reminded himself. Maybe it had to do with the pin. Noctis brought his right hand out to look at the pin, concerned that might have something to do with the mugger or whoever put him in the middle of the street. But that concerned him far less than the inside of his hand.

Under the pin, in the center of his palm, was what looked like a scar, or a fucked up tattoo, of a timer. Black numbers stared back up at him, surrounded by irritated skin. He would have thought it was a tattoo if the numbers weren’t changing right in front of his eyes. And not just changing, counting down.

Noctis’s breath picked up speed as his eyes flicked back and forth between the strange pin and the ominous timer imbedded in his hand.

A creaking, groaning sound hit Noctis’s ears. He whipped his head around, his eyes widening at the sight of a black pool of bubbling… slime spreading out a couple feet behind him. A few pools, all seemingly popping out of nowhere, and growing to be about a meter wide. He didn’t dare get close to them.

He would have to thank himself later for not wanted to get closer.

A few seconds after the pools stopped growing, something started to appear from them. First there was a round mass emerging, the black slime sliding off of it’s back as it pushed its way out of the dark. When if fully came out, Noctis was speechless. It was a crab of some sort. If crabs were painted by a group of overeager graffiti artists, colors swirling and splattered all over their bodies in no discernible pattern. Blacks, greens, pinks, purples, yellows.

They were also much larger than any crab Noctis had ever seen or encountered. Once, before his father got too busy, his father took him on vacation to the beach.

_“Daddy! Daddy!” His father looked up from his place on their beach towel. Noctis was sitting a little ways off, excitedly pointing to his upside down bucket, an enormous grin on his tiny face. “Daddy!”_

_Regis smiled and lifted himself off of the towel, making his way over to his energetic six year old. “What do you have there Noct?”_

_“It’sa crab, daddy!” Noctis lifted the bucket a crack, revealing a small red crab, no bigger than Noctis’s palm, loitering inside. “Lookit ‘im!” Regis ruffled Noctis’s hair._

_“That’s a great find Noctis, but you should let the little guy go. You don’t want to keep him from his family.” Noctis’s eyes widened, his hands quickly removing the bucket from over the crab._

_“Go home crab, sorry,” he said, watching the crab scuttle away. Young Noctis spent the rest of the day making sand castles with his father, enjoying his dad’s free time._

These ones were a lot larger than that little guy. Their bodies were longer than the pools they came out of, and they came up halfway to Noctis’s knees. Their legs were thick, each one holding up the bulk. The worst though, were the claws, one proportionally sized to its already unnaturally large body, the other was a lot longer, probably as long as the crab was wide.

And they were all slowly shuffling towards him.

One of them, the closest, snapped at him, his ankles only saved by the fact that he took a step backwards in fear. He would have screamed if sound could escape his throat. But he stayed silent, his mouth in an open scream as the crabs came closer to him.

‘Run,’ his mind screamed at him instead, and he listened. He didn’t know where he was going, but he did know he wanted to be far away from the crabs. His feet pounded against the ground.

Around him people walked, talked, and laughed with each other, taking no mind in the fact a young man was running for his life from impossibly oversized crabs, his eyes wide with fear.

_“Not now Noct, I’m busy.”_

He only ran for a few minutes before his foot landed on a discarded can, causing him to fall to the ground in a heap. He turned around, expecting to have gotten at least some distance between him and the crabs. His heart stopped when he saw them still the same distance away from him as before. He would have thought he hadn't of ran in the first place, but his surroundings were unmistakably different than before.

They were fast. They could keep up with him. This wasn't good. No, this was really bad. He didn't know what they wanted, but everything in his mind told him they were dangerous. They were going to hurt him. They already tried to hurt him. They weren't focusing on anyone _but_ him.

And the people all around continued to mill about, not noticing Noctis on the ground, or the group of multicolored crabs advancing on him. No one stopped to help. No one stopped to gawk. They kept going like there was no spectacle, like Noctis wasn’t worth their time.

_“Not now Noct, I’m busy.”_

He was going to die. These things were going to kill him. He could see his tombstone now. Rest in peace Noctis Lucis Caelum, first killed by a mugger, then by graffiti crabs. Noctis shut his eyes tight, waiting for them to stab him with their unnecessarily large pincers.

The feeling of hands gripping under his armpits and pulling him backwards caught him by surprise. A bigger surprise than the crabs.

“Dude! That was close,” a voice behind him yells. Noctis’s eyes flew open as his head whipped around. His savior had short blonde hair lying flat on his head. Thin, frameless glasses sat upon a chubby face. Upon further inspection, Noctis saw the rest of the blond was heavyset too, his body covered with a baggy red sleeveless shirt and jeans. He was giving Noctis a lopsided grin.

“I thought I’d never find you,” he exclaimed. “Come on, let's make a pact!”

Noctis continued to stared at him. Who the hell was he and what the hell was he talking about? He could hear the sound of the crabs still coming after him. His eyes flicked back and forth between his blonde savior and the graffiti crabs.

“Um, Earth to stranger! We gotta form a pact if we want to live!” The blonde kept smiling, but he started to speak faster. Noctis kept staring dumbfounded. Were the crabs just a normal occurrence to this guy? How was he not freaking out? Or maybe he was freaking out internally like Noctis was.

“Come on, don’t you wanna form a pact?” The blonde’s voice was getting higher.

‘Okay fine,’ Noctis tried to say, forgetting his inability to talk. He closed his mouth, deciding to nod at the other boy instead, hoping that counted as accepting whatever this pact was. If making a pact, whatever that means, meant living, then he would gladly do it.

Everything went white, and for a split second, Noctis regretted accepting the pact. Was it a trick? What was he thinking? He couldn’t trust this stranger. As soon as the thoughts came into his head, his vision returned. Everything looked the same, except for the fact that the crabs were significantly closer and the blonde stopped dragging him away from them.

“Cool,” the blonde said, letting go of his armpits and standing up to full height. “Let’s mess these guys up partner!” Without another word, the blonde shot a ball of fire out of his hand and at the crabs, hitting one square in the face.

Noctis’s eyes widened comically.

‘What the hell? What the hell!’ It was a mantra in his head, only getting louder and louder as the day goes on. Noctis was frozen, too shocked to move from his place on the ground. If the surprises kept ramping up, he was sure he would have a heart attack.

How was he supposed to react to this? To any of this?

“Wanna help a dude out,” the blonde asked over his shoulder, still shooting at the crabs with _fucking fire balls_ coming out of his hands. Noctis shrugged at him, his eyes still wide and his jaw slack. How the hell was he supposed to help?

“It would be a lot easier if we worked together,” the blonde kept talking. He extended one arm towards Noctis, and for a minute he was worried a fireball would come at his face. Instead his hand was open, an invitation to take it, to help him up. Noctis grabbed it, getting to his feet. The two of them walked backwards, watching the crabs advance and trying to keep a safe distance. Noctis kept his body half hidden by the other.

Every few seconds, the blonde would shoot a fireball, stunning whichever one it hit. What started out as five crabs was now four, one turning melting into a multicolored pile of slime.

“Um… do you know how to fight,” he asked, looking back at Noctis, and Noctis shook his head. Sure, his dad had him take some self defense classes as a kid, but he didn’t think those counted. Self defense doesn’t really work against oversized graffiti crabs, or boys who can shoot fireballs out of their hands. They worked on bullies or muggers.

Scratch that last one.

“Well then. Okay. This might be a problem.” The blonde killed another crab, and with his free hand started to push Noctis backwards with a little more force. “Let’s just run then dude. It’ll probably be better that way.” Noctis couldn’t argue with that idea.

The two began running in the opposite direction of the crabs. The people around them went about their day, still not taking notice of the now duo.

‘At least it’s not just me,’ Noctis thought.

Every so often, the blonde would nudge or pull Noctis down a side street. He didn’t know where they were going, but he didn’t know a lot recently, and this guy seemed to have his head on his shoulders. And as long as he was taking him somewhere with no killer crabs, or killer anything, he was fine.

Finally, the blonde stopped running. Noctis almost ran into him, his body centimeters away from the other. Both boys were panting.

“We made it,” he said, his words coming out breathy. Noctis gave him a confused look, one that the blonde didn’t see. Before he could think to question what the blonde meant, his, or really the mystery, phone chimed. He opened it up and opened the message he just received.

Unknown Number: Mission Completed

When he read the message, a dull throb went through his right hand. He looked down at his hand, expecting to see that same, ominous timer ticking down to whatever ‘erasure’ was. What he wasn’t expecting was a smooth, unmarked palm to greet him.

He stared at his hand in disbelief, then up at the blonde, who was now facing him and giving him massive grin.

“We did it,” the blonde cheered, holding his arm up towards Noctis. Noctis watched the other boy for a second before lifting his own, giving him a high five. He kept smiling, taking off his glasses and running a thick arm over his forehead, wiping off the sweat. “Damn. I haven’t had to run like that in a while.”

Noctis looked back down at his hand, no trace of the counter on it any more. It was like it was never there in the first place. What the hell was happening?

“Now that we’re out of the danger zone, how ‘bout we actually introduce ourselves?” The blonde extended his hand to Noctis. “Hi, name’s Prompto.” Noctis took the blonde’s, no, Prompto’s hand and shook. He didn’t know how to respond to the boy in front of him. Well, all he knows is that he can’t speak to him, which probably hinders their budding relationship a bit.

Prompto stood there, staring at him expectantly, even after they let go of each other’s hands. Prompto started to fidget in place the longer the silence stretched on.

“I… um…. I wouldn’t want to just call you by ‘guy’ or ‘you’. I know I kind of forced you into being my partner. Sorry about that. Kind of a weird thing for a stranger to do. But I thought it would be like, the best thing since you were being attacked and you needed a partner. And I needed a partner too, but that just makes it sound like I’m only thinking about myself. Sorry.” The blonde kept rambling, and if Noctis didn’t do something he was sure the blonde would keep going on and keep blaming himself for, what, saving them both?

Noctis placed his hand on top of Prompto’s shoulder, shutting the other up. When he was sure that he had Prompto’s attention, he pointed a finger at his own throat. He then crossed his hands over his throat in an ‘x’ and shook his head. He hoped it got the message across.

Prompto squinted his eyes at him quiet. Before Noctis could try some other motion to try and explain himself, Prompto’s eyes widened.

“Wait, can you not talk?” Noctis nodded and Prompto frowned. “Sorry! I didn’t even think that could have been the problem.” Noctis just nodded at him, happy that he got the point across. “Have you always been mute?” Noctis shook his head.

“Ah. That sucks dude,” Prompto said, giving him a sad smile. “That’s a shitty entry fee to have.” Noctis just gave him his best questioning look. Entry fee? He made it sound like this was a game.

“Is there… do you know have any paper maybe? And a pencil?” Noctis shook his head, reaching into his pockets and pulling out everything in them for emphasis. The weird ‘new’ phone and the strange pin. Prompto smacked his head.

“How about you text me?” Prompto pulled out his own phone, one that looked exactly like his except for the color, Prompto’s being a bright blue. “Let me figure out what my number is on this thing.” He started to mess with his phone, his fingers scrolling and pressing on the screen.

“I… think this is my number?” Prompto turned his phone to Noctis. On the screen were the settings of the phone. Under ‘Device Phone Number’ was 198. Noctis gave another quizzical look.

“I know, kind short right? But it’s the only thing I could find, and it is under phone number. Try texting it.” Noctis shrugged. What was the worse that could happen? He text a wrong number and it doesn’t send, or he gets a response back that isn’t Prompto? It isn’t like fucking crabs are going to attack him because he didn’t text someone correctly. He typed out a quick message and sent it, looking with Prompto at Prompto’s phone. Suddenly the phone lit up, a notification for a message on the screen.

From 074: Hi  
From 074: Names Noctis

“Alright, it worked!” Prompto was beaming, typing Noctis’s name as a new contact into his phone. “Now we can actually talk to each other! Instead of me just running my mouth.” He looked sheepish. “Well… I guess I am still the only one running my mouth. But at least you can respond!” Noctis gave a small smile and began typing on his phone.

From Noctis: Makes things a lot easier when I can talk back

From Noctis: Still really confused about what is going on

“Same dude. Why us out of all people?” Prompto started walking over to a low wall, sitting on it when he reached it. Noctis followed and sat next to him, looking around. Right above them was a street sign with bright white words reading ‘Platea Street’.

‘Huh,’ he thought. ‘Guess that’s why we completed the mission.’ Another thought came to mind, one he typed out and sent over to his new acquaintance.

From Noctis: You said ‘I found you’

From Noctis: Why were you looking for me

Prompto gave a nervous laugh as he read the messages.

“Oh, well, I meant you in like, a general sense,” the blonde said, looking up from his phone and back at Noctis. “Just… someone else who didn’t have a partner so we could make a pact.” Noctis opened his mouth in an ‘o’ shape. He began typing again, and Prompto looked down at his phone when it gave the familiar notification sound.

From Noctis: So

From Noctis: What exactly is a partner

“Didn’t… didn’t he tell you,” the blonde asked him. Noctis shook his head. “Okay, well that’s weird. You know, considering everyone else here that I’ve seen knows what they’re doing.” As he spoke, the blonde shifted from foot to foot, his hands clasped in front of him. “Kind of a dick move on his part, right?” Noctis shrugged.

From Noctis: Who’s he

Prompto’s eyebrow rose.

“Did you even meet him? Tall dude, kinda red, kinda purple hair?” Noctis shook his head again. “Looks kind of homeless,” Prompto continued.

From Noctis: I think I’d remember a homeless dude with a bad hair job telling me to fight demon crabs

Prompto laughed loudly, startling Noctis, but making him chuckle silently too. When was the last time he actually talked to someone else and enjoyed it? Not just a one sentence dismissal or someone having a one sided conversation with him trying to gain something from knowing him. And to think, he almost died thirty minutes before and he was clueless as to what the hell has been going on since he woke up however long ago. The more he thought about it, the more pathetic he seemed.

“You got a point,” Prompto said. “He kind of explain everything to me. Said he explained it to everyone else here too. Guess that was a lie.”

Noctis: What would he get out of not telling me too

“No idea dude.” Prompto patted Noctis’s shoulder. “But we’ll figure it out together partner.” He gave Noctis a cheesy grin. Before Noctis could bring his phone up to text a response a blinding pain shot through his head. He winced, bringing a hand up to grasp his hair, in some hope that it would stop the pain. It didn’t.

He could see whatever was happening was affecting Prompto too. The other was holding his head and fell to his knees off of the wall. Noctis wanted to reach out or say something to him. Ask him what was happening. If he was okay. If they were okay. If they were going to die.

He couldn’t ask anything as he fell off the wall too, blacking out.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really excited to write this. Updates may be a bit slow, because I'm focusing on three different photography finals, but I'm motivated to finish this.
> 
> Comments, reviews, and critiques are always welcome and appreciated!


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